Minimal isometric dilations and operator models for the polydisc

Abstract

For commuting contractions $T_1,\dots ,T_n$ acting on a Hilbert space $\mathcal H$ with $T=\prod_{i=1}^n T_i$, we find a necessary and sufficient condition under which $(T_1,\dots ,T_n)$ dilates to commuting isometries $(V_1,\dots ,V_n)$ on the minimal isometric dilation space $T$, where $V=\prod_{i=1}^nV_i$ is the minimal isometric dilation of $T$. We construct both Sch$\ddot{a}$ffer and Sz. Nagy-Foias type isometric dilations for $(T_1,\dots ,T_n)$ on the minimal dilation spaces of $T$. Also, a different dilation is constructed when the product $T$ is a $C._0$ contraction, that is ${T^*}^n \rightarrow 0$ as $n \rightarrow \infty$. As a consequence of these dilation theorems we obtain different functional models for $(T_1,\dots ,T_n)$ in terms of multiplication operators on vectorial Hardy spaces. One notable fact about our models is that the multipliers are analytic functions in one variable. The dilation, when $T$ is a $C._0$ contraction, leads to a conditional factorization of a $T$. Several examples have been constructed.